SNFU front man far from DOA

Latest Showbiz News

KEVIN MAIMANN - Special to Sun Media

May 2, 2008

, Last Updated: 3:24 AM ET

Mr. Chi Pig is more than twice the age he was when he first got into the punk rock business, but he hasn't lost a shred of the punk attitude.

After finally making himself available at midnight the morning of deadline, Pig fires off a few unprintable phrases and pretends to end the interview a minute later. It's immediately clear the 45-year-old SNFU front man isn't going to make this easy.

After a small belch, Mr. Pig - a.k.a. Ken Chinn - says he's been hanging out a lot in bars lately, and is working part-time busing tables and picking up bottles at a Vancouver hotel drinking hole.

Pig is bringing a new SNFU crew down to New City Sunday night with Left Spine Down and Panik Attak opening the show.

He decided to "reunite" the legendary Edmonton punk band for its 25th anniversary on June 22, 2007 by scooping up a few old friends for another kick at the can. The band is now a four-piece and is without the guitar tandem of longtime members Brent and Marc Belke.

"I'm older now and so I don't travel as well," Pig admits. "I did 2,400 shows in a 25-year period all over the f--kin' globe with SNFU, so that's a lot of f--king road damage, for better or worse."

With nearly 20 ex-members, SNFU has officially disbanded twice - between 1989 and 1991 and again from 2005 to 2007. They've run the gamut from hardcore punk to melodic skate punk and switched home bases from Edmonton to Vancouver, achieving legendary status internationally along the way.

"It's kinda weird when new kids see us and the only thing they really know us from is the Internet website and there's pictures of me from when I was in my prime, like 20, 22, flying like eight feet in the air with f--kin' dreadlocks," Pig says. "I don't look like that anymore, and I can't jump that high anymore."

As he reminisces between sips of beer about playing halls and house parties during the band's early days in Edmonton, it's clear some things just don't change. Not drastically, anyway.

"You'd just f--king get wasted and party to the other band and get wasted, and go to a party and get wasted, not know how you got home and sh-t like that," he says.

Pig says he sleeps a lot more on the road now, and muses about doing his laundry and shopping when he wakes up the next day. He also spends time on his drawings, a skill he's put to use illustrating the band's album covers over the years.

As he notes, there are many "Chi Pig aficionados in Edmonton," but he's also fully aware there will be many who will nitpick and say he's not what he once was.

"(People) might say 'Oh, he's old and he's not as great as he used to be.' But hey, we'll check where you're at when you're f--kin' 45 years old," he says.

Criticize all you want, Pig says he's just here to entertain. And he's not going to stop until he "starts sucking" at it.

"We just built things up like a ladder, like one rung at a time," he says. "And I'm proud of every f--kin' minute of it."

Sunday's concert is a no-minors show at the New City Compound, 10081 Jasper Ave.